Updated 4:34 pm, Monday, August 1, 2016

Photo: TODD HEISLER, NYT

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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., July 27, 2016. Trump said earlier Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary Clinton’s email, essentially sanctioning a foreign power’s cyberspying of a secretary of state’s correspondence. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” (Todd Heisler/The New York Times) less

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., July 27, 2016. Trump said earlier Wednesday that he hoped Russia had hacked Hillary ... more

Photo: TODD HEISLER, NYT

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U.S. President Donald Trump has said some eye-opening things during his presidential run and the years leading up to it.

Here's a look back at some of the most noteworthy conspiracy theories he's promoted.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said some eye-opening things during his presidential run and the years leading up to it.

Here's a look back at some of the most noteworthy conspiracy theories he's promoted.

Photo: DOUG MILLS, STF

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1. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's father played a role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

In May 2016, Donald Trump told Fox News that he believes Sen. Ted Cruz' father, Rafael Cruz, could be linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Trump cited an April 2016 National Enquirer story that claimed Rafael appeared in a 1963 photo in New Orleans with Lee Harvey Oswald, the suspected shooter of JFK.

The younger Cruz denied that his father had any role in the assassination and called out Trump for being dishonest. Trump brought the theory up again in the days following the GOP convention.

Following the shooting at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando, Donald trump appeared on NBC's "Today" show and said of President Barack Obama, "There are a lot of people that think maybe he doesn't want to get it. A lot of people think maybe he doesn't want to know about it. I happen to think he just doesn't know what he's doing, but there are many people that think maybe he doesn't want to get it."

Many interpreted the comments as Trump believing Obama sympathizes with Islamic terrorists.

4. Syrian refugees have no background checks and it's impossible to tell if they're terrorists

Donald Trump claimed that there are too many Syrian refugees coming into the United States and that "We don't know who they are. They have no documentation and we don't know what they're planning," according to NPR.

NPR reports refugees "go through more security checks than any other traveler to the U.S.," dispelling another one of Trump's theories.

Donald Trump had serious doubts that President Barack Obama was actually born in America and eligible to be president. Trump publicized the theory so much that he became the forerunner of a new movement, called "The Birthers." Trump insisted that Obama was born in Kenya so much that the president released his birth certificate in order to squash any suspicion.

In September 2016, Trump reversed his position, saying, "President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period."

While appearing on talk show host Mike Savage's program in February 2016, the topic of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's death was discussed.

When asked if he believed Scalia was murdered, Trump responded, "They say they found a pillow on his face, which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow. I can't tell you - I can't give you an answer," according to The Hill.

7. Minorities commit the bulk of crimes against whites, according to the "Crime Statistics Bureau."

In November of 2015, Donald Trump tweeted that crime statistics show blacks are responsible for 81 percent of white homicide deaths. But as Politifact pointed out, Trump quoted numbers from the "Crime Statistics Bureau," which doesn't exist. Politifact found Trump's numbers were about double the numbers they used from the FBI and U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

When Donald Trump announced he was going to run for president, he began his speech by declaring most Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug addicts. There has been little to no evidence that Trump's claims are true.

On Nov. 6, 2012, Donald Trump tweeted "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."

9. Climate change doesn't exist

On Nov. 6, 2012, Donald Trump tweeted "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."

Photo: Donald Trump Twitter

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10. The U.S. unemployment rate is manipulated to make Obama look good

Donald Trump told Time magazine in August 2015 that the real unemployment rate for America is 42 percent. Trump believes the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics manipulates the unemployment rate to make President Barack Obama and his administration look good. But as a former BLS commissioner points out, it would take more than 1,000 people to manipulate the unemployment rate in anyone's favor.

13. Trump got a bad microphone in the first debate with Hillary Clinton

Republican nominee Donald Trump claims his performance against Hillary Clinton in their first one-on-one debate, Sept. 26, 2016, was caused by a bad microphone and that it may have been deliberately tampered with. Despite that, Trump claims he won the debate. Debate watchers have disagreed with that assessment.

Donald Trump won the electoral college, but lost the popular vote by nearly 2.5 million votes. But, after seeing a tweet from a Houston activist, Trump picked up on the unsubstantiated claim that millions of people voted illegally. Neither Trump nor the activist offered any proof to back the allegation.

Republican nominee Donald Trump has been closing the gap on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in recent weeks, but that changed in a big way Monday, according to the popular poll monitoring blog FiveThirtyEight.com.

As of Saturday, the blog - which synthesizes polling from around the country to predict elections - had Donald Trump as a slight favorite in the current modeling, at 50.1% to 49.9% chance of winning. The number does not represent the likely popular vote, but rather the likelihood of victory in the electoral college based on state-by-state polling. On Sunday Clinton edged back ahead as a 51% favorite, but by Monday Clinton was seen as having 63.3% to 36.7% advantage.

According to the blog, new numbers suggests Clinton is now narrowly favored in Florida, Iowa and Ohio, key swing states where she had trailed in recent days.

It's common for candidates to see a "convention bump" in the days immediately following the formal nomination process, but according to FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver, Clinton appears to be getting a much larger uptick than her opponent this cycle.

In a brand new CBS News poll, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton gets a 4 point bounce after her party's convention. That's twice the bump Donald Trump got after his Republican National Convention. Clinton has pulled ahead of Trump again, with 46 percent of voters nationwide saying they'll opt for her in November. 39 percent of those surveyed say they'll back Trump. Over half of voters continue to hold an unfavorable opinion of Donald Trump.

Media: WochIt Media

"Clinton will potentially exit the conventions in a stronger position than she entered them, perhaps also making up for some of the ground she lost to Trump earlier in July," Silver wrote Monday.

Findings released by Gallup Monday suggest that Trump actually may have lost support during the GOP convention, a phenomenon not seen previously by that polling group.

The GOP nominee has been put on the defensive in recent days following a verbal spat with the parents of a slain Army veteran which has rallied opponents on the right and the left. The tussle came on the heels of some controversial comments about national security and criticism of his convention, where his chief primary rival failed to endorse him.

At a campaign stop in Ohio on Monday, Trump tried to change the subject by raising concerns that November's general election will not be legitimate.

"I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest," the Republican nominee told a town hall crowd in Columbus, according to the Associated Press. He told the crowd that he hears "more and more" that the election may not be fair.

According to FiveThirtyEight, Trump currently trails Clinton by roughly 60 electoral votes in current modeling.

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